My Manicure For 9 January 2015

Firstly, my manicure from last week lasted 7 days with very little damage at all.  I really am amazed at the way my OPI Base Coat and Top Coat perform for me.  They keep my mani so crisp and bright, and unless I actually hit my nail on something, I get very little wear at all.  I'll be looking out for larger sizes of these two products for sure, especially the top coat, as I use it every second day.

Nothing very exciting this week, but I thought I should still show you what I did.  The products I used were:  Sally Hansen Nail Rehab Strengthener, Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Base Coat, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fruitti Petutie, Savvy by DB Confetti, Calvin Klein Hallucinate, and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Base and Top Coat.  I used the Sally Hansen base and top coats because I was using Sally Hansen nail polish, and they should work well together.  We will have to wait and see. Also, I still am struggling with cleaning up after I apply my nail polish.  I've got a new clean-up pen, and am still working out the best way to use it.  So please forgive the rough finish around the base of my nails.

I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab Strengthener because my nails haven't been doing very well just lately.  The damaged section is getting very dry, brittle and fragile, and my middle nail on my right hand is still being held together with a "tea bag" patch.  Just after taking this photo today (3rd day of my mani) I knocked my thumb nail on my left hand on the bench and took a chunk out of the tip of it.  I wanted to cry, becauses that nail was just starting to recover from a previous break and was looking pretty good.  I've filed it back a bit with my nail polish still on, and added another coat of top coat to it so that, hopefully, it will last until my next manicure in a few days.

Next, I applied one coat of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Base Coat. I haven't tried this base coat before, so it will be interesting to see how it performs. Then I applied three coats of Sally Hansen Fruitti Patutie to each nail, followed by one coat of Savvy Confetti glitter to my ring fingers.  I did dab a few more bits of glitter in a couple of places to give it better coverage, but I didn't really need to.  There is so much glitter in this bottle of polish it is unbelievable.  It has heaps of small white, mid pink and dark hot-pink hexagonal glitter, with teeny, tiny little bits of the same colours filling just about every gap in between.  The base is clear, but you wouldn't think so when you look into the bottle.  It is just gorgeous, and could be worn with all sorts of colours, or perhaps on its own if you used two or three coats.

I wanted to add a little more interest to the look, so I finished off my manicure with one coat of Calvin Klein Hallucinate, which is a beautiful holographic glitter in a milky, clear base. I love this polish, and have used it a couple of times in the past because it gives me just the right amount of shimmer on my nails over any colour I've tried it with.  This is another polish I'm going to be keeping an eye out for while I'm looking around online. I'm not sure where, or even if, I can get it anywhere in stores in Australia, so I'll probably have to go to ebay for it, like I did last time.

I know it isn't a very exciting design, but I had a very busy week, so I needed something easy and quick to do, and I wanted it to be pink because of the pink cricket test match that was played in Sydney last week, and Jane McGrath Day in particular, when people are asked to donate funds to the McGrath Foundation.  This foundation, for those who don't know, was the brainchild of Jane McGrath, the wife of one of Australia's best ever cricketers, Glenn McGrath, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, and then with secondary breast cancer, which turned out to be terminal.  Jane realised that there were too many women living in regional and country areas of Australia who have to travel many, many hours to get to a hospital where they can access treatment for breast cancer, and possibly have to stay for days at a time, far away from their families when they really need them close.  She thought that, if there were enough breast care nurses in Australia, they could travel to the patients instead, and take the treatment to them, and also be there to support them, and their families, through their breast cancer journeys, whether the outcomes are good or bad.  After she passed away, the running of the Foundation was taken over by her best friend, Tracey Bevan, and Glenn, and it is so wonderful to see her dream coming to fruition.

It was the 10th anniversary of the Foundation this year, and 7 years since Jane passed away, but every year the test match played in Sydney is taken over by the colour pink - and the number of people who turned out in pink on Jane McGrath Day this year was astounding.  In fact, if you didn't have something pink on you stood out like a sore thumb, and you would really would have felt out of place.  Sponsor's logos turned pink, the stumps on the pitch were bright pink, the players wore pink caps, and had pink emblems on their clothing, and even the commentators for the match wore pink - one even had a complete suit, shirt and tie on. (They were all men but one, but the way.) Talk about commitment to the cause!!!!

This is an amazing charity and, after just 10 years, the Foundation now funds 101 breast cancer nurses throughout Australia, (and there should be more after the fundraising during this match), and their aim is to make it possible for every woman diagnosed with breast cancer, no matter where she lives in Australia, to have access to a nurse, and they believe that 200 nurses should be able to achieve that.  So, God willing, that won't be too far down the track.  It takes over $AU300,000 to fund one nurse for 3 years, and they won't take on a new nurse unless they have the funds to commit to that, so you can see what a big achievement this has been, and what a long road they have ahead of them. If you get the chance to donate to the Foundation, please do so.  I know how important the breast care nurses at the hospital were to me last year when I was going through my treatment, and they do an amazing job looking after us, but don't often get the recognition they should.  So, thank you from the bottom of my heart to the nurses who looked after me last year when things were so tough.  You wonderful nurses all deserve medals, and are worth more than words can express!

So, that's me for this week.  Please let me know if you like my nail art designs, or not, and I'd love you all to leave comments to encourage me if you could.  I've finally found the widget that allows people to subscribe to my feed and follow my posts, so I hope you will join and come back often to see what I've been doing with my nails, or what new goodies I've found to share with you.  I scored some amazing new polishes this week, at bargain prices, so I might get my hubby to take some photos of them and share them with you in a day or two.

God bless you, and have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/